Support for State Chairman Joe Mondello

Shams Tarek, DSCC spokesman says “The recent chorus of Republican officials calling for Joe Mondello to step down as State GOP chair is disappointing and a step backwards for New York.
“With the New York GOP’s recent loss of both the State Senate and the overwhelmingly Republican 20th Congressional District to Democrats, we couldn’t be more pleased with Chair Mondello’s work.
"For the benefit of a population completely fed up with years of GOP cynicism and dysfunction in both Washington and Albany, Chair Mondello should remain in place and continue to remove Republicans from office in New York.”

And we need Mondello here in Nassau County too!

Venditto the Tax Increaser Shows Nerve Speaking at Anti-Tax Rally

TOBAY Supervisor John Venditto was one of the few local elected officials to speak at the Nassau Young Republican Tea Party. The rally with puportedly was about how we are being taxed too much is an odd place for Venditto to speak considering he increased taxes in the Town of Oyster Bay by 11%.
Venditto has an odd rationalization for raising taxes as he told the Massapequa Post "We all hate taxes but I think residents understand that the we've been mindful at a local level," said Venditto who added that the budget maintains the status quo on all of the Town's programs and projects"

What does Venditto mean by "status quo?" According to the budget, there is only a 2.8% spending increase. How does a 2.8% spending increase equal an 11% tax increase?

Venditto continues "The success of this Town isn't measured in budget tables but how well it serves its people," the Supervisor said. "When I start to work on a budget I think of about our young people, who may now be able to buy their first home or senior citizens who can now remain here," said the Supervisor."

But what Venditto isn't thinking much about or even talking about is the $400million in debt the Town has. And how does the Town "serve it's people?" By Bonding over $54million to make up fro lack of funds. Venditto and the all-republican Town Board borrows heavily on the backs of the young people who want to buy their first home.

The Post article continuies "Venditto called the budget lean, cost efficient and financially responsible.
"When we took over in the late 90's the Town was in dire financial straights with a $30-million deficit. I don't want to undo any of the good work we've done," said Venditto. "I think this budget is a fiscally responsible one that still allows the Town to continue its programs and services that make Oyster Bay a desirable place to live."

WHAT?????
I would call being $454million in the hole somewhat dire considering the downturn in local revenues. And again, it is the constant Bonding that allows the Town to continue it's programs and services. Without those bonds, there would be a deficit higher than the one Venditto says he inherited.

Venditto has real balls to stand up and speak at an anti-tax rally when he is taxing the TOBAY residents more and borrowing more money to keep his "status quo."

Venditto can't stand higher taxes unless he is the one raising them!

Nassau Young Republican Tea Party Draws One's of People

The belated tea bagging by the Young Reps brought out a crowd that could fit in a booth at Friendly's. Not counting the Young Rep organizers and the speakers, the crowd ballooned to about 35-40. The speakers spoke from atop a flat-bed truck which provided an empty stage for the basically unknown featured speakers.

Brett Joshpe? Who the hell was he?

David Webb? Another unknown. And like Joshpe, from reading the hype on their websites you would think they were household names.

And then there was KT McFarland. You may remember her as being a possible candidate to challenge then-Senator Clinton back in 2006. McFarland gained some attention when she said that "Hillary Clinton is really worried about me, and is so worried, in fact, that she had helicopters flying over my house in Southampton today taking pictures."

I'd fire whoever booked the speakers.

Then there were a few elected officials like Assemblyman Dave McDonough, TOBAY Supervisor John Venditto and TOBAY Coucilwoman and photo-op queen Rose Walker.

The day was a rousing success if you measure success on a huge curve.

Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto Consolidates Special Districts.... Into Nassau County

There has been a movement gaining traction from the County Executive, elected officials and regular citizens to consolidate the hundreds of special taxing districts in Nassau County. By consolidating these districts, tax payers would save money.
Supervisor John Venditto has made the leap and consolidated all the Special Districts in the Town of Oyster Bay. In the recent "Talk of the Town" propaganda mailing, Venditto shifts the Special Districts to the Nassau County slice of the tax dollar pie.


The FACT is that John Venditto is lying. Nassau County has NOTHING to do with the Special Districts. Venditto is just trying to shrink the percentage of tax dollars the Town collects and increase th percentage the County collect.
The REAL percentage for Nassau County is about 17.5%, NOT the 22.6% Venditto claims. The County portion of your taxes has been the lowest in years. It's Venditto who just raised your Town taxes by 11%.
The Special Districts are under the control of the Town of Oyster Bay. The Town sets the tax rates. The Town appoints board members. NOT the County.
The REAL FACT is that the Town of Oyster Bay slice of the tax pie is 17.8% NOT the 12.6% Venditto claims.

Venditto spent taxpayer money to send a mailing to LIE to those very same taxpayers.
What a disgrace.

More Massapequa Tea Bag Party Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the republican tea bag party....
(click pictures to enlarge)

This guy was manning a microphone and trying his best at arousing the tea baggers. He had a simple schtick in-between bad quasi-patriotic country music. At one point this guy says we have to "get rid of Nancy Pelosi" and either "send her TO China" or "send her BACK TO China." I'm correct in saying that Nancy Pelosi is a citizen of the country and born of Italian descent which makes it odd that she should go "back to" China where she was never from in the first place.
Then of course he gave us the "No Taxation Without Representation" rally cry. Again, I am correct in saying that we have duly elected representatives covering every inch of these United States. Maybe the genius missed the election last november.


Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, this poor soul seems to have missed the election too and assumes that Speaker of the House Pelosi ascended to the presidency.


And speaking of last november's elections, this poor dear believes that she is in the "majority." If she were, there would not be a President Obama and an overwhelming Democratic congress.


I wanted to ask this person who he/she (couldn't tell) believes is in congress and does not "Love the USA."


Here is a classic. "Abolish the FED!" Exactly what would replace the central banking system of the United States? Who will be a stop-gap for bank panics? Who will protect consumer bank users? I will assume the person holding the sign 1) knows what the "FED" is and 2) has a reasonable replacement in mind.


This guy wants to "save the children." And of course he missed the part where stimulus money was going to education and would save the schools from cutting programs.


And last but not least here is republican legislature candidate Joe Belesi in the suit, not the stupid hat. Joe here was a police union boss who retired from the county with a $400,000 pay-out and a $100,000+ pension and medical coverage for him and his family. He is now working for the drunk driver Minority Leader Peter Schmitt taking more money from county taxpayers.

Joe Mondello Answers with a Little Anti-Semitism?

Mondello was asked about NYC Mayor - and likely republican candidate for re-election - Bloomberg's support of gay marriage and replies as a "practicing catholic", "Well, what can I tell you? That's going to have to be between him and his God, just like what I do has to be between me and my God."

Peter King gets Snubbed at Republican Dinner

Last night the NYS Republicans brought out Newt Gingrich at their annual dinner. Newt spoke and had this to say about the NY GOP future "If we had Mayor Giuliani for governor and we had Gov. Pataki for senator, we would be a large step towards the tidal wave which will make 2010 comparable to 1994," he said, referring to the GOP electoral sweep in '94. "That should be our goal."

Hmmm... isn't Peter King the one that has been trumpeting his name as a potential winning senate candidate?
This is one heck of a slight.
Is Newt still holding a grudge against King for calling him "political road-kill" back in the 90's?

Massapequa Tea Bagger Brings the Crazy

Here is a sign I pretty much expected to see....



This loon still believes that there is a grand conspiracy to hide the "fact" that President Obama was not born in Hawaii but in Kenya and is ineligible to be President.

The grand conspiracy involved the REPUBLICAN Governor of Hawaii who is keeping Obama's "real" birth certificate hidden, the Clinton campaign who had the money and the connections to dig up any dirt on Obama, and the State of Hawaii which does the bidding of a junior senator from Illinois, and the Department of State which issues Obama a passport and a whole host of other agencies.

Obama was born in Hawaii, you nut.

There is another nut job in Massapequa who spews forth on a local website who still clings to the birth certificate conspiracy among other things. It wasn't him holding the sign.. maybe just a fan. We'll get to him in a future post.

Massapequa Tea Bag Party Pictures

I went to the Massapequa Tea Bag Party this afternoon. The Tea baggers were lined up on Sunrise Highway (some on the south side) with their signs causing traffic to slow to a crawl.
I wade into the crowd of about 150-200 to take some pictures and see what was up. The snippets of conversations I heard made my ears bleed. They might not be indicative of the whole crowd but what I heard was a lack of understanding of the issues. Then I heard "... FOX News..." and "... 770AM..." and that pretty much explained the lack of knowledge.

Here are a few pictures of the crowd.


These two seem to have forgotten that the economic mess we are in was caused by 8 years of George W. Bush and 6 of those years with a republican congress. Actually, the whole crowd seems to have developed selective amnesia, blocking Jan. 2001 to Jan. 2009.
I'd like to point out to these two mouth breathers the illegal wiretaps that were unconstitutional. Who did that again, guys?



Here is someone who believes that access to healthcare for all Americans will cause death. Universal Healthcare means access. It means healthier citizens. It means insurance companies can't deny treatment as they do every single day.
Universal Healthcare works fine elsewhere. Why not here?




I wonder if this fine fellow voted for George W. Bush. I bet he did.
Now I wonder if he was just as upset and took to the street when the debt increased 71% under Bush. That is a $10trillion debt President Obama INHERITED.
Does it matter that Bush inherited an annual federal budget surplus of $230 billion from Clinton and in just three short years turned it into a $500+ billion deficit? This negative turnaround of three-quarters of a trillion dollars.

More pictures later....

Tea Baggers Coming to Massapequa

Today is "Tax Day" and the republican tea baggers are holding a Tea Bag Party in Massapequa. Newsday reports Head Tea Bagger "Laura Gill, the lead organizer of the Massapequa rally, said the protests are in response to the stimulus package "and we're going to have a voice and vote together. There is strength in numbers."
Actually, the "protests" are in response to Barack Obama winning the election.
The interesting thing is the "protest" is being held at the Massapequa LIRR station from 4-6pm.
Don't these people have jobs? What an odd time to have a tea bag party at the LIRR station.
Since I was a commuter for many, many years I can safely say that the 9-5er's will be arriving after the Tea Bag Party is over. Usually around 6:01.
And if any financial services employees do get off the train, ask them how bad it is that the government saved the banks and financial institutions they still have a job at.
I wonder how many bank failures, company bankruptcies, and massive layoffs Laura Gill feels is okay.
The stimulus money is plugging a hole in the NY State budget which is helping Nassau County, the Town of Oyster Bay and the Massapequa School District.
What is Laura Gill willing to cut if that stimulus money wasn't there?

I'm betting TOBAY Supervisor John Venditto who raised taxes 11% last year will be on hand for a photo-op. Expect to see Venditto Tea Bagging in an upcoming issue of the Massapequa Post.

Nassau Young Republicans Catch Tea Bagging Fever

The Nassau County Young Republicans have taken up the new tea bagging fad and will be hosting a Tea Bag Party at Levittown Veteran's Memorial Park on April 25th.
This protest against grave injustices inflicted upon republicans like Obama winning the election in November and other things should go well.... considering there is no body of water at the park and on weekends, the park is a popular skateboarder hangout.
The Nassau County Young Republicans plan to take back America one Tea Bag at a time. They plan to stimulate debate and arouse the voters.

To get the party started right, the young reps will be hosting an Long Island Iced Tea Bag Party the week before.

Legislator Mangano Comes Close to the Truth

The Legislature introduced a bill that would make college tuition free for Vollies. The Democrats apparantly kept refering to the idea as "brilliant." Newsday Spincycle reports "The back-patting went on for a while, and the “brilliant” word popped up a few more times, then turned into a running joke for the rest of the session.
“If ‘brilliant’ was a drinking game, we’d all be drunk by now,” Legis. Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage), said at one point."

I don't think Peter Schmitt needs to wait for a drinking game.

King Goes to Gitmo Part 1; Apples and Oranges Edition

King has an op-ed in today's NYPost extolling the virutes of the Gitmo facility and attacking President Obama for preparing to close it. There are many points to look at in the op-ed so I'll do them bit by bit.
King says that at Gitmo "Detainees at Guantanamo are treated far better than most American prisoners in the US jails and prisons I've inspected over the years."

Umm.. Peter..... the prisoners in US jails have all faced a judge and jury and have been found guilty of a crime. The detainees at Gitmo have not had a trial. That is the problem.

It's fairly simple; have a trial and either find the detainees guilty of terrorist acts or send them back to thier own countries.

Here is a scenario King ought to think about:
When King went to Northen Ireland years ago as an IRA supporter and agitator, he stayed with and spent time with murderers and assorted criminals. If the British forces did a sweep and arrested King along with the other terrorists would King think that it is okay for the British to hold him indefinately without trial?
Would King feel good about languishing in prison for 4 or more years without contact with family and friends or a lawyer to represent him?

Wavering King May Lose Chance to Run for Senate

According to an AP story, Republican Senate Campaign Committee head John Cornyn is looking to former governor George Pataki to run for Senate against Gillibrand in 2010.
King has consistantly performed extremely poorly in match-up polls against Gillibrand. And he hasn't been as gung-ho to run as he was against Caroline Kennedy.

"A person who spoke to George Pataki says national Republicans have approached the former New York governor about running for the Senate in 2010.
The person confirmed Tuesday's meeting in New York City between Pataki and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who heads the party's national Senate campaign committee. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to comment.
The person says Pataki, now in private law practice, hasn't yet accepted or rejected the idea. The race would be against Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton and said she will run.
Pataki didn't respond to a request for comment.
Cornyn's office referred questions to the committee, which didn't comment."

The Journal News gives a reason why Pataki would be the better choice...
"A Marist College poll last month found Gillibrand and Pataki in a statistical dead heat in a hypothetical matchup, with Gillibrand at 44 percent and Pataki at 42 percent.
"What he brings to a candidacy in a very blue state is name recognition, a proven statewide vote-getter, an ability to raise money, candidate experience. And those are many of the ingredients for success," Marist pollster Lee Miringoff said."

King can always run against Schumer..... Nah..... he doesn't have the guts to try.

Peter King in Trouble - Complete Unknown Beats Him in New poll

A Gillibrand second term unknown congresswoman beats six term media-whore King in a new Marist poll.King has done his best to get his face in every newspaper and on every political talk show he can. He has been grandstanding on immigration and homeland security for 7 years. Kirsten Gillibrand is a big unknown outside of her district but she tops King 49% - 24% in the new Marist poll.
Looking at the polls matching King against Kennedy and Coumo, if we are looking for a pattern, it's that King is not liked.
This poll proves that King is not popular outside of his district.
At all.

King and Skelos Go Crazy Over Patersons Senate Pick.

King and New York State Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos are demanding that Governor Paterson explain how he chose Rep. Gilbrand to fill the vacancy left by Hillary Clinton.
King spouts off alot of BS "There was a whole strange series of events," King told The Associated Press. "There is a crisis of confidence in the state. There is a cloud over Kirsten Gillibrand's appointment. To me, it's essential that the governor give a full explanation as quickly as possible."
There is no "cloud" over Kirsten Gillibrand. It's just that King really wanted Caroline Kennedy to run because he thought that would be an easier race.

Dean Skelos, the architect of the Republicans loss of the New York State Senate pipes in "What a disgrace... At least the governor of Illinois made a decision."
So Paterson didn't make a decision?
What a dumb thing to say.
Gillibrand is the new US Senator from New York. Get used to it.

King of course has no idea that Paterson doesn't have to tell anyone how he made his decision. So says that CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. King should read the 17th Amendment "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct."
Paterson as Governor is empowered to appoint anyone he wants.
Kirsten Gillibrand is great choice.
And that is what scares them.

Peter Schmitt: Dumb Ass

Ya just gotta love Peter Schmitt. He is so diabolically stupid. At a Nassau Losers.... er.. GOP meeting he calls for using tax increases against Democrats in the Fall elections.
Schmitt says "We're going to take that record and we're going to wrap it around their neck and we're going to push them in the lake and watch them go down."
I wonder how much KAte Murray and John Venditto were squirming when Schmitt said that. I mean Schmitt has to know that his buddy John Venditto raised Town of Oyster Bay taxes 11%, right? And that Murray raised taxes in the Town of Hempstead 6.6%.
Umm.. Peter, THAT will be hung around republicans necks.

Chicken a la King

For a guy who had so much tough talk on Caroline Kenndy's possibel appointment to the US Senate, he sure back the heck off when Rep. Kristen Gillibrand was named.
King was itching to get into a fight with Senator Caroline Kennedy but has instead toned down his rhetoric on running. “If he appointed Caroline Kennedy, I was ready to file papers right away because she’s a superstar and you can’t let her build a head of steam – and she was totally unqualified in my perspective,” King told Politico. “With Kirsten, she’s entitled to be given an opportunity to build a record for the state.”

So King isn't ready right away to file papers against Gillibrand?
Of course not, because King knows Gillibrand will be a tougher candidate.
I mean if King REALLY wanted to run for Senate, he could have delcared to run against Schumer.... but he didn't.
King is all talk and nothing more.

Another Poll Shows King Still Losing Senate Race

Another day and another poll for the NY Senate seat being vacated by new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A Research 2000 poll conducted for the Daily Kos website doesn’t offer any more good news for Peter King or even Rudy Guiliani who would be the so-called “top-tier” GOP candidates.
Under Approval, King gets 39% Approval, 41% Disapproval, and 20% No Opinion.
Guiliani fares much worse with 38% Approval, 56% Disapproval, and 6% No Opinion.

In the head-to-head match-up, Cuomo beats King 45% to 32%.
Cuomo beats Giuliani 48% to 33%.
Kennedy still trounces King 47% to 31% and does the same thing to Giuliani 49% to 32%.

Congressman Steve Israel who is new to the polls and is very much an unknown compared to any of the other possible candidates beats King 34% to 31% and does the same to Giuliani 35% to 32%. That isn’t much but no one knows Israel.

King and Giuliani pull the same low number against well-known Dems and a virtually unknown Dem.

Video: MINORITY LEADER Skelos Can't Believe He is Using the Word "Reform"

Dean-o is slowly adjusting to his minority party status and like his fellow republicans realizing they are in quote a pickle. If the Democrats treat them the way they treated the Dems for decades, it's going to be a real tough time.
The Democrats have pledged that they will reform the way the Senate does business. Here is Skelos - who probably had to practice the word "reform" phonetically all night - barely able to make his statement asking Democrats to support the Brennan Center reforms.



He can't even keep a straight face as he flaunts his hypocricy.
Skelos reveled in killing millions in ear-marked funds for the 7th District when Craig Johnson took the seat after Balboni left. Skelos was happy that fellow Long Islanders got screwed.
Before the reforms are put into place, Skelos nneds to feel what it was like on the other side while he was in charge.
It's not revenge, it is a lesson for a bully.